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The Method of Material Flow Analysis, a Tool for Selecting Sustainable Sanitation Technology Options: the Case of Pouytenga (Burkina Faso)

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The Method of Material Flow Analysis, a Tool for Selecting Sustainable Sanitation Technology Options: the Case of Pouytenga (Burkina Faso) Water Resources Management VI 671 The method of material flow analysis, a tool for selecting sustainable sanitation technology options: the case of Pouytenga (Burkina Faso) L. S. A. Yiougo1, H. Koanda2, J. Wethe1, C. Luthi3, O. Yapo4 & E. D. Dapola5 1International Institute of Water and Environment Engineering, Burkina Faso 2Water AID, Burkina Faso 3Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (Sandec), Swiss Federal institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Switzerland 4AboboAdjamé University, Côte d’Ivoire 5University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Abstract Like many other cities in Sub Saharan Africa, Pouytenga in Burkina Faso has sanitation problems characterized by poor public health. Pouytenga is located upstream of the dam of Yitenga, and the pollution of this city is drained into this dam, which is used to supply drinking water. The city has no strategic sanitation plan. So, the objective of the study is to assess the dynamics of material flows and pollutant (nitrogen) through different technological sanitation options of Pouytenga. The method of material flow analysis (MFA) is used to assess the matter and nutrients fluxes. The methodology includes literature review, household surveys and chemical analyses of wastewater and fecal sludge. Several scenarios of sanitation options have been assessed. The results show that Pouytenga currently discharges about 61,824 tons of material, including 36 tons of nitrogen per year in surface water and 373 098 tons of materials, including 282.6 tons of nitrogen on groundwater per year. The promotion of diverted urine toilets in the city and solid waste composting is expected to recover 194 tons of nitrogen for agriculture. Keywords: poor public health, pollution, nitrogen, material flow analysis. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 145, © 2011 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) doi:10.2495/WRM110601 672 Water Resources Management VI 1 Introduction Pouytenga is a middle sized city of Burkina Faso in West Africa with a population of about 72,000 inhabitants. This city does not have any Strategic Sanitation Plan for managing wastewater, fecal sludge, solid waste and rainwater. About 66% of households discharge their grey water on the street; 14% don’t have on-site sanitation facilities and practice open defecation. About 27% of households discharge their solid waste in the environment without any treatment. The rainwater is drained by natural channels and discharges into a dam located in the city upstream (fig. 1). This dam is used for supplying the city drinking water. In this paper, we describe how material flow analysis (MFA) can be used as a tool for selecting sustainable sanitation technology options. MFA is a systematic assessment of flows and stocks of materials within a system defined in space and time (Brunner and Rechberger [1]; Montangero [2]; Yiougo et al. [3]). It can be used for designing and testing different materials management systems in order to compare the flows to the environment, or against some acceptance criteria for environmental loading. So, any strategy of materials management can be discussed through the results of an MFA system (Lu et al. [4]). This paper recommends MFA as a tool for decision making that allows comparing different sanitation technology options. Location of Yitenga Dam in Burkina Faso N N Burkina Faso Africa Caption Influence zone 0 50 Kilometers Kourritenga 0 2000 Kilometers Province The influence zone of Yitenga dam N # POUYTENGA city # # # # Yitenga dam # # Caption # # villages and cities Hydrography W aterscape # study zone 4000 0 4000 8000 Meters Figure 1: Location of study zone. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 145, © 2011 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) Water Resources Management VI 673 2 Methodology 2.1 Principles of the material flow analysis method Material Flow Analysis (MFA) is the assessment of matter mass flow (water, food, excreta, wastewater...) or pollutant mass flow (nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon...) which going through a system (city, country...) during a defined period (fig. 2). The principle of MFA is based on the law of matter conservation. MFA has four mains steps (Binder et al. [5]): (i) system analysis; (ii) quantification of mass of matter and indicator flow; (iii) identification of the current situation weak points and (iv) development and assessment of the technology scenario. Figure 2: Example of system analysis. The boxes designate processes and the arrows represent the flows. 2.2 System analysis The system border of this study was the geographic limit of the city of Pouytenga (80 km2). The indicator flow is Nitrogen (N). Nitrogen is a pollutant linked to sanitation problems and can be reused in agriculture. According to Binder et al. [5], the choice of indicator should take into account the availability of measuring devices and the link with human activities, representative of pollution and nutrients. The system is composed by 12 processes and 44 flows. The 12 processes are: 1. Households: they consume water, food (input) and reject excreta, wastewater, garbage, and biogas (output) ; 2. On-site sanitation which is represented by different types of technology as simple pit latrines, septic tank, urine diverted toilet. The inputs are wastewater and excreta and the outputs are fecal sludge and effluent ; 3. Drainage channels and natural drainage receive wastewater and rainwater with a part of household garbage and fecal sludge; WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 145, © 2011 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) 674 Water Resources Management VI 4. Open dumps receive household and market solid waste partly used as organic manure in peri-urban agriculture; 5. Water supply process concerns running water, water from fountains and from alternative resources such as wells and dams. The input is untreated water (raw water from the dams and the groundwater) and the output is drinking water; 6. Markets where foods, livestock and mineral fertilizers pass through; 7. Abattoir (slaughterhouse) which receives one part of livestock and water (input) and rejects meat, liquid and solid waste ; 8. Stock of fecal sludge on the street: sludge removed from the pit is sometimes discharged on the street; 9. Peri-urban agriculture including market gardening, urban agriculture and urban livestock ; 10. Atmosphere; 11. Surface water; 12. Groundwater. 2.3 Quantification of mass of material and nitrogen flow Matter flow was expressed in kg/capita/year and nitrogen flow in g/capita/year. Data which are used come from four sources: bibliography, survey, chemical analysis and estimated data. The software Excel was used for mass flow calculation and STAN (Software for Substance Flow Analysis) was used for the graphic representation (Cencic and Rechberger [6]). 2.3.1 Bibliography data Data about nutrition come from the Food and Agriculture Organisation database. Data from several study on Material Flow Analysis in other contexts are been used in particular from Ghana (Belevi [7]), Ethiopia (Meinzinger et al. [8]), Zimbabwe (Gumbo [9]), and Vietnam (Montangero et al. [10]). 2.3.2 Collected data A survey among the population of Pouytenga was carried out. About 250 (4%) households were interviewed about the current status of sanitation. Nitrogen values in fecal sludge, grey water come from analysis. Grab sampling is used to collect wastewater samples (35 samples) during two sampling campaigns. Samples of fecal sludge were taking during empting operation of pit latrines and septic tanks. Samples were collected in polyethylene bottles containing nitric acid in order to have a pH<2 and stored at approximately 4°C. N has been determined by Kjeldah method according to Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (2005). 2.4 Evaluated scenarios The tested technologies are the Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP), the urine diverted toilet and the organic matter composting. The VIP latrine is promoted by the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ONEA), and the urine diverted toilet is WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 145, © 2011 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) Water Resources Management VI 675 promoted by the Regional Center for Water and Sanitation (CREPA). Table 1 summarizes the four tested scenarios (S). Table 1: Evaluated scenarios. Current situation S1 S2 S3 S4 Simple pits latrine 83% ‐ - 83% - VIP latrine - 97% - - - Urine diverted toilet - - 97% - 97% Septic tank 3% 3% 3% 3% 3% Open defecation 14% - - 14% - Solid waste 67% 67% 67% 100% 100% composting 3 Results and discussion Technological proposals have been tested to improve the current situation of sanitation. These technologies aim to reduce the flow of pollutants (nitrogen) that are lost through the existing sewerage system. Table 2 presents the results of the current situation and the tested scenarios. Table 2: Results of the current situation and the tested scenarios. Current S 1 S2 S3 S 4 situation Raw water 7,016 - - - - consumption (kg/year/cap) Matter flow in surface 1,030.4 1,010.4 1,010.4 974.4 958.4 water (kg/year/cap) Matter flow in 6,218.3 6,174.5 5,921.3 6,093.53 5,796.53 groundwater (kg/year/cap) Nitrogen flow in 0.6 0.27 0.27 0.36 0.26 surface water (kg/year/cap) Nitrogen flow in 4.71 4.4 3 4.61 2.64 groundwater (kg/year/cap) Nitrogen reused in 37.65 48.37 149.3 66.65 194 agriculture (t/year) 3.1 Current situation analysis The main matter flow is drinking water, of which from the main source is surface water. Each year, one person uses on average 7,016 kg of raw water including 6,542 kg from the dam. The results show that each person every year stores an WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 145, © 2011 WIT Press www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) 676 Water Resources Management VI average 6,218 kg of matter in the soil or groundwater and rejects 1,030 kg in surface water systems through sewage infiltration and runoff (fig.
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